The present invention relates to the field of vending machines and, more particularly by, to the field of vending machines for dispensing freshly cooked foodstuff.
Food preparation devices are well known in the prior art. More particularly, prior art devices for storing and mixing dry foodstuff and water are known. For example, it is known to make cookies by storing wheat flour and water and providing them to a stirring and mixing device for processing. This apparatus also included a shaping device for forming the mixture obtained by the stirring and mixing device into a predetermined shape by extruding it through extrusion holes. Thereafter the shaped mixture was collected and baked by an oven which was separate from the blending and forming devices.
Additionally, a prior art apparatus is known for preparing cooked foods such as fried potatoes. This apparatus sliced the potatoes to form potato slices. The potato slices were then fried by carrying them on a conveyor through a storage bath for storing edible oil which had been previously heated to a predetermined temperature. This prior art apparatus was adapted to process perishable foods such as potatoes. Thus, when it was not operated for a prolonged period of time, the freshness of the potatoes was lowered. This resulted in a degrading of the quality of produced foods.
Other machines are known in the prior art for dispensing perishable foods. For instance, such machines are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,677, U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,247 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,820. A problem with machines of the type described in these patents was the relatively rapid deterioration of the raw materials used to make the dispensed product and the relatively limited raw materials storage capacity of the machines. Thus a method for providing fried food without storing perishable food was preferred.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,622,355 describes a dry food product and a process for making a food product that was reconstituted. This eliminated many of the problems associated with the storage of perishable food in the prior art. In the reconstitution method the dry product was agitated and formed into a uniform dough. French-fry-cut potato pieces, for example, were formed from the dough. Devices which could perform this forming operation are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,647, U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,345, U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,937, U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,969, U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,750 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,453.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,683 disclosed a storage hopper for storing a supply of food product to be dispensed in a dehydrated form. A supply device was provided for transferring a predetermined amount of the dehydrated food product corresponding to the size of an individual order to a rehydrating chamber. Liquid was then dispensed to the dehydrated food product in the chamber to reconstitute the food product. A piston forced the reconstituted product through a die positioned within the outlet of the rehydrating chamber. A cutting device was provided adjacent the outlet of the die to sever individual pieces of rehydrated foodstuff forced through the die by the piston.
The individual severed pieces fell into a heated container of heating or cooking oil disposed beneath the rehydrating chamber. A conveyor carried the cooked food product to an outlet of the apparatus. The cooking and dispensing sequence was initiated by a coin operated actuating mechanism. A partial dispensing sequence was initiated after a predetermined lapse of time following the preceding dispensing operation. The remaining reconstituted food products were then transferred through a storage bath in order to cook them. The transfer path of this apparatus was required to be relatively long in order to sufficiently heat the slices. As a result the apparatus was large in size.
Furthermore, in this prior art apparatus when a small amount of the food mixture was extruded the mixture stuck to the inner surface of a casing which formed the mixing chamber. This resulted in a low yield. When a large amount of a mixture was extruded, the extruded mixture tended to rot unless all portions of the extruded mixture were immediately processed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,329 discloses another method of french frying a food product. In this method a basket containing the food product to be french fried was adapted to occupy either a lowered position in which the basket was immersed in a deep fat bath, or an elevated position in which the basket was maintained above the bath. A motor was provided for lowering and raising the basket to dispose it in these two positions.
In other known deep fat fryers of this type, the basket was lowered from its raised position to its lowered position when the temperature of the cooking bath attained a suitable temperature. A mechanical timer then started counting down until the end of the cooking period. At the end of the cooking period the basket was raised to its elevated position. In order to carry out this cycle these deep fat fryers were provided with a fairly complex control device adapted to selectively control a number of independent motors.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,329 taught lowering and raising the basket and driving the mechanical timer with a single motor. The single motor was controlled by the position of the basket. In this manner the motor drove the timer when the basket occupied its lowered position and otherwise it drove the means for lowering and raising the basket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,627 taught an apparatus for preparing and dispensing individual portions of a fried potato product prepared from dehydrated potatoes that were rehydrated immediately prior to frying and dispensing. The output of this device was a product that resembled french fried potatoes that have been prepared by frying cut raw potatoes. The apparatus included means for storing individual bags of dehydrated product that were opened as necessary depending upon the demand for the product. The empty bags were retained within the device for subsequent removal. A bag cutting device opened the bags permitting the product to fall into a product hopper. A product forming section was provided to reconstitute a measured portion of the dehydrated material and provide a dough that was formed into the desired shape. The shaped dough was fried in a fryer that contained hot frying oil. The fried product was then removed from the fryer and transported to a dispensing station where it was dispensed into a serving container.
Residue that remained in the dough forming portion of the apparatus was dried by means of heat in order to minimize the likelihood of biological contamination. Furthermore, the oil used for cooking the shaped dough was maintained in a closed system at an elevated temperature and periodically recycled through the cooking bath. This permitted the apparatus to maintain the cooking bath at an elevated temperature and ready for immediate operation. It therefore eliminated the need for a time consuming heating operation when an order was prepared and dispensed and permitted immediate cooking of the dough after it was formed. U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,820 taught a frying basket which was moveable from an upright position in a frying bath to an at least a partly inverted position outside the cooking bath. Also disclosed in this reference was means for ejecting a portion of food from the hopper into the basket when the basket was in a position between its upright position and its partly inverted position. The degree of movement required by the basket was the amount necessary to cause all of the fried edible products in the frying basket to move from the frying basket under the influence of gravity.
The frying basket was slidably mounted in such a way that when the basket was partially inverted it slid under the influence of gravity until brought to rest by a stop member. This ensured that when the basket was inverted, all the fried food product contained therein was ejected by the jerk of the basket when it stopped. Means were also provided to stop the sliding of the basket until the inverting thereof reached a required extent.
The means for feeding food from the hopper into the basket was a slidably mounted ejection scoop. The ejection scoop was movable between a position in which the scoop was under the food in the hopper to a position laterally outside the hopper. The size of the scoop was selected to cause the system to dispense a portion having a predetermined size.
Food to be fried and dispensed was fed from the hopper to the basket by way of a sliding ejector mechanism. The basket was then moved into the frying oil. After a predetermined time interval the basket was removed from the frying oil and moved to a position in which the fried food fell out of the basket and onto a plate placed suitably for the purpose by the user of the apparatus.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,376 the dehydrated food material was stored in a reservoir. The reservoir had a large enough volume to eliminate the need for frequent replenishing of the food material. The food material was measured so that a precise amount was loaded into a holding cup. A controlled amount of the rehydrating liquid was added to the holding cup after the food material was loaded into it. The addition of the rehydrating liquid produced a rehydrated food material. The rehydrated food material was forced from the holding cup into a transporting device and, during the transporting process, cut into pieces having the desired sizes and shapes. The transporting device moved the pieces to a cooking area and dispensed them after cooking. While one group of food pieces was being cooked and dispensed by this device additional dehydrated food material was rehydrated and formed.
When dehydrated food material was used in the prior art it was known that the use of heated liquid provided improved rehydration. Heated liquid provided the fastest and most uniform rehydration. Therefore, many prior art devices included a hot water heater for heating the rehydration liquid before it was delivered to the rehydration stations where it was mixed with dehydrated food material. To maximize coverage of the food material with the hot water, the rehydration station of one prior art device included a rotating shower head with a number of spray nozzles.
It was also disclosed in the prior art that improved rehydration could be obtained when the dehydrated food material was placed in a compact level arrangement prior to the addition of the rehydrating liquid. In such an arrangement the dehydrated food material was formed into a uniform volume without peaks and valleys. Therefore, the piston that later forced the rehydrated material from the rehydration station was used to level and to compress the dehydrated food material prior to rehydration. During this leveling process the piston was lowered by a predetermined amount until contact was made between the piston and the dehydrated food material. The piston was then rotated to level the surface of the food material. The same piston was used both for leveling the dehydrated material in this manner and for forcing the material from the container after rehydration.
The present invention is a foodstuff vending machine having a processing container for receiving and processing a dehydrated foodstuff. When water is received into the processing container along with the dehydrated foodstuff pressure is applied and the dehydrated foodstuff is rehydrated. A receiving basket is then disposed beneath the processing container. A sealed extrusion die at the bottom of the processing container is unsealed and a piston drives the rehydrated foodstuff through the unsealed extrusion die to form an extruded food product. The receiving basket receives the extruded food product. The receiving basket is provided with an openable bottom surface which prevents foodstuff from passing therethrough when in its closed position and permits the foodstuff to pass therethrough when in its open position. An opening device is provided to move the operable surface from its closed position to its open position. A cooking chamber is also provided. The receiving basket transports the extruded rehydrated food product to the cooking chamber and is lowered into the cooking chamber where the foodstuff is cooked. A dehydrated foodstuff storage hopper is provided for storing the dehydrated food and a heated water container is provided for storing heated water.